


A Benevolent Highwayman

by invisible_aliens



Series: Carry On Countdown 2018 [15]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Although probably rather inaccurate, Baz is a highwayman, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 16:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16936743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invisible_aliens/pseuds/invisible_aliens
Summary: Simon is kidnapped by a highwayman, but things might not be so bad.Written for the Carry On Countdown 2018, Day 15: Historical Setting





	A Benevolent Highwayman

**Author's Note:**

> This was definitely inspired by The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue.

**PENELOPE**

Simon leaves the party early, like always. (The only other person who’s left already is Baz.) (I only know that because Simon wouldn’t stop talking about it.)  He doesn't want to stick around talking to girls he knows he supposed to marry but doesn't want to. (Like Agatha. Although I think avoiding her is a bit much, as I don’t think she wants to marry him, either.) I go with him. 

“You don't have to leave early with me every time! People will start to get suspicious! What will Micah think?” 

“Micah knows that we are friends, and nothing else. Anyway, you can’t go home yet, not without your father. Who else is going to keep you company while you wait?”

I looks at his glum expression. “What's up?” 

“It's Lord Davey,” he says. 

“Your father, you mean.” 

“He doesn't really feel like my father. This morning he gave me a long talk about how I need to seriously start looking into who to marry. Not even Baz has worked that out yet!”

(Why can’t he ever shut up about Baz?)

“Are you worried about him asking Agatha? I know you had your eye on her.” I hate the way Agatha has little choice in this. I've been lucky with Micah. We love each other, and our parents all approve of the match.

He shrugs. “Not anymore. I just want to run away. Go somewhere else.” 

“On your own?” I'd miss him if he left. “You don't even have any money!” 

I wouldn't put it past him to leave anyway, though.

“If you do run away, tell me where you go so I can come visit.”

  
  


**SIMON**

I wait outside the house for my father, impatient to leave. These parties have gotten worse and worse as I get older. 

We get a carriage home together. 

“Do you want to take a shortcut?” asks the coachman. 

“Just get us home as fast as you can,” says my father.

We get in, and off we go. Neither of us say anything for a while. 

“You need to stop leaving early,” says my father finally. 

Before I answer, the carriage jerks to a halt. 

“What's going on?” my father growls. 

We can hear the coachman arguing with someone. 

“It must be a highwayman,” I say. “We are out in the country road. We should have gone the normal way through the town instead of going on this stupid supposed shortcut.”

“Quiet,” father hisses.

The door is wrenched open. A man is outside, his face masked. He grabs me and hauls me out. 

“Hey!” I protest as a pistol is pressed to my head. 

“Hand over your valuables,” he orders my father. 

“No.” 

“Do you want me to hurt your companion here?” 

I close my eyes. My father isn't good at taking orders. 

“I said no.” 

I open my eyes to see my father has pulled another pistol out his jacket. (When the hell did he get that?) 

“Well,” says my kidnapper. “It seems we're at a stalemate.”

He drags me out of the carriage and towards the woodland by the side of the road. 

“Say anything and I'll kill you.”

My father chases after us, but we're lying almost right under a bush, and he misses us, and gives up. (I'm hurt he doesn't spend more time looking for me.) 

“What are you going to do with me?” I ask the highwayman. 

“Hold you for ransom, obviously.”

He pulls some rope and ties me to a tree. “Holding a knife to you is tiring, and I don't trust you to run away. Now, who are you exactly?”

“I'm not telling you.” 

“If you tell me, you'll get home faster.” 

“I'm not sure I want to go home.” 

That takes him off guard. “Well, it doesn't actually matter, since I already know who you are.” 

I wonder what he's heard about me. 

Although, if he knows who I am, that probably means I know him. 

“You know me and you still decided to kidnap me?” 

He laughs. “I might know you, but we're not friends.”

“Good. Because I wouldn't want to be friends with a villainous thief!” 

“You have no idea why I'm doing this,” he growls. “Why don't you go to sleep and we can continue this in the morning.”

“If you're intentions are so noble why don't you tell me why.” 

“I need the money, alright? Not all of our parents are giving us anything, Snow. I'm getting out of this stupid place.”

“You could take me with you.” 

“Like I said, Snow, we're not even friends.” 

Only one person calls me Snow with that tone. 

“Baz? It's you, isn't it?” 

He sighs. “You got me.” 

“I still want to come with you.”

He pulls mask off, and starts to untie me. “You don't want to stay here with Agatha?” 

“No. Don't you? Wouldn't your father by happy if you married her?” 

“My father will hate me whatever I do.” 

“That's stupid.” Baz has finished untying me, and I stretch out. 

“I don't hate you.” 

He smiles. “Thanks, Simon.” 

  
  


**BAZ**

There is a part obviously me desperately wants Simon to come. But when he finds out the real reason my father's shunned me, he's going to hate me. 

But just in case he won't. 

“My father's disappointed in my choice of lovers.”

He frowns. “What do you mean?” 

“He caught me sleeping with a man.”

Simon stares at me, his mouth open in shock. “But that’s stupid! He’s your father, he shouldn’t care!” He frowns. “Why were you so jealous of Agatha and I then?”

Hopefully he’s stupid enough to not work it out. I hastily change the subject. “You don’t care? You’ll still come with me?”

“Of course!” he says, still looking puzzled.

“But doesn’t that mean you didn’t want Agatha?” he asks.

“Well, no, I didn’t.”

“So what did you want then?”

I can feel his gaze piercing right through me, coming to rest on the answer, and pulling it out of me.

“You.”

He keeps staring.

“Are you still sure you want to come?” 

“Yes!”

And then he kisses me.

If only I’d kidnapped him earlier.


End file.
